JAKES COLLEGE 1890-1904 was south of the Woodbury Road on the east side of Weeks Road about 1/2 mile south of its intersection with Coleman Road. The school was named for Jake Zumbro who gave the land for the school.
The schoolhouse was a frame building with a high, steep roof and a chimney. There was no porch. One long room extended back from the road. Later a room was added to the back right side for the assistant teacher. The addition had a door on the front. Students had to go outside to get from one room to the other. Walls were painted black for blackboards. The play ground was across the road.
John Bivins, nephew of Jake Zumbro, was principal. He later taught at DILTON in 1905. Other teachers were Alice Jones, 1896, and Stanton Smith from Woodbury, 1896-1898.
JAKES COLLEGE has been converted into a home. The side of the house was once the front of the school. The window was a door. The high gabled roof has been lowered and siding has been added to the walls.
George Weeks, whose mother was a niece of Jake Zumbro, started school here on August 7, 1894. Other family names of students were Jones, Sloan, Nisbett, Melton, Coleman, and Hall.
When the school closed, Lizzie Zumbro Bivins, sister of Jake Zumbro and mother of John Bivins, bought the school and converted it into a home. At the present time (ed. 1985), Lizzie Weeks Saums, great niece of Lizzie Bivins and Jake Zumbro and a sister of George E. Weeks, lives in the house.
SOURCES: Letter, dated Feb. 6, 1984, from George E. Weeks, b. July 29, 1888. Interview, March 28, 1984, with Lizzie Saums, b. July 1893.